1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device, an information processing device, and a print preview processing method. The present invention more specifically relates to a technique of processing a print preview image applied when a print job is executed.
2. Description of the Background Art
Widely known conventional image forming devices that execute print jobs in response to user's instructions for printing and produce printed outputs include devices such as those disclosed for example in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. JP1999-296335 A (called patent document 1) and JP2002-152488 A (called patent document 2). The image forming devices disclosed therein have a function to create a print preview image before producing a printed output, and displays the created print preview image on a device such as a monitor.
According to the technique disclosed for example in patent documents 1 and 2, spool data is converted to data of an image as a print preview image. When the image data is edited, the edited image data is converted again to spool data, so that a result of the edition is reflected in a printed output.
An image forming device is connected through a network to multiple printing devices in a manner that allows data communication therebetween. It is assumed that an error such as toner shortage or sheet shortage is occurred in the image forming device when a print job is executed therein to produce a printed output in response to user's instructions for printing, thereby making execution of the print job impossible. In this case, what the conventional image forming devices can normally do is only to display error information indicating that making a printed output is not possible to the user. In response, the user should find which one of the other printing devices is available, and give instructions for printing again to the printing device determined to be available. This troublesome operation places a burden on the user.
Both the techniques disclosed in patent documents 1 and 2 allow a result of a printed output to be displayed in advance as a print preview image. However, these techniques fail to reduce the burden to be placed on the user in the case of occurrence of error in the image forming device.
The conventional image forming devices include such a device as that automatically transmits a print job to another printing device when an error is occurred during execution of the print job. However, this conventional image forming device simply transfers the print job to another printing device. So, when the printing device received the transferred print job executes the print job to produce a printed output, the condition of finishing such as a font, a color or a margin of the produced printed output may differ from that of a printed output to be produced by the originally intended image forming device with execution of the print job. In this case, the condition of the produced printed output desired by a user may not be achieved.
This problem should be considered seriously, especially for the reason that the user finds the fact that the produced printed output fails to satisfy his desire after the printing device received the transferred print job executes the print job. This requires the user to give instructions for printing again to obtain a desired printed output, while making the printed output produced by the printing device that received the transferred print job to go to waste.